Kathryn Stockett's Synthesis Essay

Kathryn Stockett wrote this novel with influence from both the time period and her upbringing all for the purpose of allowing her readers to view both a white and colored perspective on segregation. She portrays her purpose through the themes of race and violence. While writing, Stockett uses the theme of race to bring attention to the differences between the white and colored lives. In the novel, she explains how the coloreds do not have as nice of neighborhoods, stores, and public buildings, such as libraries (Stockett).

She also ties in the theme of violence in order to give the audience a perspective of segregation. On page 229, Kathryn Stockett alludes to the KKK by asserting that there was an attack resulting in the death a colored man (Stockett 229). She says, “The KKK was here … to hunt down a colored man (Stockett 229). She alludes to the KKK for an example of the violent threats that coloreds had faced from the whites. The KKK was a commonly known group that had been responsible for terrorizing many coloreds in the Jackson, Mississippi communities. Stockett

Based upon the reading of this novel, Kathryn Stockett wrote this book in order to emphasize that sometimes another person’s idea might not be all bad; in this instance, it was Skeeter Phelan’s thought that segregation was not necessary. In addition, the setting of The Help was very influential on the theme. The book took place in the 1960’s in Jackson, Mississippi (Stockett 1). Commonly known for its very strict segregation, Jackson had Jim Crow laws established legalizing segregation (Arneson). Kathryn Stockett chose Jackson as the place for the setting of the novel because she wanted to really emphasize her purpose. In order to do so, she needed to place the book in a place where segregation was very prevalent in order to make her point